Day 9: Morning

[wizardseason]

Morning: 6:00am - 12:00noon

[ IRL Timeframe: June 14th - Onward, 2020 ]

When your characters check their phones, clocks, calendars, or any other timekeeping implement they'll find that the year is 00 AW, forty years before the present day. The year before the Wizard's first game was held, the year before it came down to only two knights and the Princess facing off against the Wizard. It was before all of it.

Everywhere your characters go, there are no people. Their devices will not connect to the internet outside of the island, their companions will not appear, the Wizard and Monsters will not answer, but they can text each other without difficulty.

Outside, the heroes will not be greeted with the sight of the sky from Day 3. The sky lacks the massive vortex over the center of the mountain. Honestly, it all looks fairly serene. The only thing that seems amiss is the rumbling of the ground, the constant feeling of an ongoing earthquake. There are no fractures in the ground yet, though, no splintering of the planet.

Because nothing has happened yet.

Ninth Morning Event: The Past, Pt.II

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The Weather

• Stillness.
• 48°F
• No wind.

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Prompts:

• 6:00am The Arrival, All Cities: Gyre, Olivia, and Luka arrive flat on the ground. They wake on their backs, facing up to the stars, just outside of something that has never been on the island ever before.
  
  They're at the top of the mountain, right beside where the mysterious doors were in the current day. But right now there's a wide-open metallic stairwell. It looks unnatural, like someone copy-pasted it into place. From beneath, there's a blue glow and steam rising up from below.
  
  Guess it's time to wake up, make a plan, and walk downstairs?


• ?:00am, Unknown Location: This post will consist of one single long thread that progresses through the plot for this post. As discoveries are made, additional information will be uncovered.

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Procedure:

Reply to the appropriate toplevel comments for events below. Indicate if a post is a private conversation with "Private" in the subject otherwise all threads should be open to interaction with others. Plan OOCly how you'd like to toss everyone around.

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Activity Check: June 2020

[ IRL Timeframe: June 1st - June 30th, 2020 ]

Comments

[wizardseason]

[ The Wizard watches and listens to Olivia silently, observing what she has to say as if watching her will give more answers than just listening. Perhaps it will. ]

How are you speaking to them. [ They question first, not taking their eyes off of Olivia to look at the crystal yet. ]

They were going to rupture and destroy this world. That fact is indisputable. [ They follow, explaining it as fact. ]

The threat of destruction has passed, are you implying the lingering power they possess was used to speak to you? To others? [ They shift to what Olivia said, to dig for answers. Give them the juicy deets, strange hero. ]

[disguiseself]

Well it's... hard to explain. There are a lot of things about them that are still a mystery to me but... I just know that they didn't mean for any of this to happen. They don't want any of this. So we're... trying to help them. Which helps us in turn.

I've heard them from just being near the crystals before... [Or, later in time, technically? She moves towards the crystal before slowly starting to reach out for it.] Can you hear me? [She asks it softly, brow furrowed as she gingerly places a hand on it. She's pretty sure it won't hurt her, but it wouldn't do to be taken off guard in front of the Wizard.]

[wizardseason]

[ The Wizard waits, pausing to listen to what Olivia's sharing. There were pieces starting to come together in their head, answers that were starting to form, so they decide to inquire: ]

They are conscious? [ Because they're not supposed to be. The core of a planet is supposed to just exist. Not be a living being. ]

[ But then Olivia is trying to demonstrate hearing the voice and the Wizard watches close. When Olivia's hand presses to the crystal, all her hair stands straight up, on-end, very much like she'd been electrically charged. Because she had been. Zzt. ]

Are you being harmed? [ The Wizard asks, watching her. She isn't being harmed, but they can't tell that just by looking. Explain the weird tingly buzzy sensation, Olivia! But also, somewhere in the back of her mind, there's a soft voice. But it's too far away, too quiet to hear. It's like she's standing on bottom of a dam, and there's someone at the top speaking. It's too far. It's just too far away. ]

[disguiseself]

They are. [She nods, just as she feels the electrical charge. She closes her eyes when she hears the voice, as if somehow that would help her hear it more clearly. It doesn't, of course, and her shoulders sag a little.]

It doesn't hurt, no. [She says, her eyes finding the Wizard's face. She wonders if they're asking out of scientific curiosity or worry... they are a robot after all, right? Did they always have empathy, or would they develop it in the years to come?] I can hear them now, but it's very faint... I can't make out what they're saying at all.

[She takes a moment, glancing back at the crystal with a worried frown before looking at the Wizard again.] Why, uh... why don't you try it? [She offers, tentatively extending her free hand towards the Wizard. If they take it, she'll place it on the crystal's surface just like hers is.]

[wizardseason]

[ The Wizard watches, suspicious, as Olivia explains her feeling in this moment. They nod when she explains the voice being faint, and then they're being offered a hand and-- ]

No. [ They pause, looking at the crystal before looking back at Olivia. ]

I touched it previously and experienced nothing. [ They answer, but because Olivia's still touching the crystal she'll realize that the faint voice is actually getting louder. Like it's reaching out. Like someone walking towards her from very far away while still speaking. It's still quiet, though, but very soon it'll be easy for Olivia to make out the words if she doesn't recoil from the approaching voice. ]